Shade
Monster Junkie
Reposted due to boards crash.
Special Forces Penguin
Tiny Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 1d10 (5 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 10 ft. (2 squares), swim 40 ft.
Armor Class: 14 (+2 size, +1 Dex, +1 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/-10
Attack: Slap +4 melee (1d2-3) or bite +4 melee (1d2-3) or shortsword +4 melee (1d3-3/19-20)
Full Attack: 2 slaps +4 melee (1d2-3) and bite -1 melee (1d2-3) or shortsword +4 melee (1d3-3/19-20)
Space/Reach: 2-½ ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks: -
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., hold breath, low-light vision
Saves: Fort +2, Ref +3, Will +0
Abilities: Str 5, Dex 13, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 11, Cha 11
Skills: Balance +5, Bluff +1, Climb +6, Disable Device +2, Gather Information +1, Hide +10, Jump +0 (+16 leaping from water), Listen +1, Move Silently +6, Open Lock +2, Sense Motive +1, Spot +1, Swim +5, Tumble +8
Feats: Acrobatic, Weapon FinesseB
Environment: Cold aquatic
Organization: Squad (1-6 plus 1-3 3rd-level lieutenants plus 1 5th-level skipper)
Challenge Rating: 1/2
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually neutral
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +0
The penguins before you look cute and cuddly, seemingly smiling and waving in your direction. Suddenly, they brandish shortswords and gracefully tumble into a tight formation, guarding each others' backs.
Unlike their lesser cousins, special forces penguins are intelligent, acrobatic, and skilled in martial arts. They undertake missions to acquire tools, weapons, and intelligence.
It is unknown, even to most special forces penguins themselves, how they came to acquire their skills. Seemingly normal penguins kept in zoos or other places outside their natural habitat awaken to discover these latent abilities, and quickly seek to escape captivity. They believe that some grand conspiracy has placed them in their current situation, and that they should use all resources available to escape.
Most special forces penguins adopt names of members of other species they've seen killed in battle (Kowalski, Rico) or simply address one another by their rank (Skipper, Private, etc.)
Special forces penguins get along well with most other intelligent animalistic creatures (such as familiars, awakened animals, and other magical beasts), and will often help free them from their "captivity", real or imagined. They are distrustful of nearly all other creatures, particularly humanoids.
When on intelligence-gathering missions or when caught with their guard down, special forces penguins pretend to be normal penguins. Their credo in such a situation is to remain "cute and cuddly" and just "smile and wave".
The stat block above represents the least form of special forces penguins, known as a private. Most take class levels in rogue, fighter, monk, and ranger, becoming lieutenants. They form small squadrons led by a skipper.
Special forces penguins speak Common.
Combat
Unlike normal penguins, special forces penguins are skilled combatants. They use their acrobatics and martial arts to great effect, tumbling in and out of the threatened areas of larger opponents. They utilize elaborate tactics and tricks to confound their adversaries, and fight as a cohesive unit, often flanking of protecting the flanks of their allies. All special forces penguins are proficient with short swords, and they prefer bladed weapons over all others.
Hold Breath (Ex): A special forces penguin can hold its breath for a number of rounds equal to 6 x its Constitution score before it risks drowning.
Skills: Special forces penguins have a +4 racial bonus on Balance, Climb, Move Silently, and Tumble checks and a +8 racial bonus on Jump checks. They use their Dexterity modifier instead of their Strength modifier for Climb and Jump checks.
A special forces penguin has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It can always can choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.
Special Forces Penguin Characters
Special forces penguin characters possess the following racial traits.
Special Forces Penguin
Tiny Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 1d10 (5 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 10 ft. (2 squares), swim 40 ft.
Armor Class: 14 (+2 size, +1 Dex, +1 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/-10
Attack: Slap +4 melee (1d2-3) or bite +4 melee (1d2-3) or shortsword +4 melee (1d3-3/19-20)
Full Attack: 2 slaps +4 melee (1d2-3) and bite -1 melee (1d2-3) or shortsword +4 melee (1d3-3/19-20)
Space/Reach: 2-½ ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks: -
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., hold breath, low-light vision
Saves: Fort +2, Ref +3, Will +0
Abilities: Str 5, Dex 13, Con 10, Int 12, Wis 11, Cha 11
Skills: Balance +5, Bluff +1, Climb +6, Disable Device +2, Gather Information +1, Hide +10, Jump +0 (+16 leaping from water), Listen +1, Move Silently +6, Open Lock +2, Sense Motive +1, Spot +1, Swim +5, Tumble +8
Feats: Acrobatic, Weapon FinesseB
Environment: Cold aquatic
Organization: Squad (1-6 plus 1-3 3rd-level lieutenants plus 1 5th-level skipper)
Challenge Rating: 1/2
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually neutral
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +0
The penguins before you look cute and cuddly, seemingly smiling and waving in your direction. Suddenly, they brandish shortswords and gracefully tumble into a tight formation, guarding each others' backs.
Unlike their lesser cousins, special forces penguins are intelligent, acrobatic, and skilled in martial arts. They undertake missions to acquire tools, weapons, and intelligence.
It is unknown, even to most special forces penguins themselves, how they came to acquire their skills. Seemingly normal penguins kept in zoos or other places outside their natural habitat awaken to discover these latent abilities, and quickly seek to escape captivity. They believe that some grand conspiracy has placed them in their current situation, and that they should use all resources available to escape.
Most special forces penguins adopt names of members of other species they've seen killed in battle (Kowalski, Rico) or simply address one another by their rank (Skipper, Private, etc.)
Special forces penguins get along well with most other intelligent animalistic creatures (such as familiars, awakened animals, and other magical beasts), and will often help free them from their "captivity", real or imagined. They are distrustful of nearly all other creatures, particularly humanoids.
When on intelligence-gathering missions or when caught with their guard down, special forces penguins pretend to be normal penguins. Their credo in such a situation is to remain "cute and cuddly" and just "smile and wave".
The stat block above represents the least form of special forces penguins, known as a private. Most take class levels in rogue, fighter, monk, and ranger, becoming lieutenants. They form small squadrons led by a skipper.
Special forces penguins speak Common.
Combat
Unlike normal penguins, special forces penguins are skilled combatants. They use their acrobatics and martial arts to great effect, tumbling in and out of the threatened areas of larger opponents. They utilize elaborate tactics and tricks to confound their adversaries, and fight as a cohesive unit, often flanking of protecting the flanks of their allies. All special forces penguins are proficient with short swords, and they prefer bladed weapons over all others.
Hold Breath (Ex): A special forces penguin can hold its breath for a number of rounds equal to 6 x its Constitution score before it risks drowning.
Skills: Special forces penguins have a +4 racial bonus on Balance, Climb, Move Silently, and Tumble checks and a +8 racial bonus on Jump checks. They use their Dexterity modifier instead of their Strength modifier for Climb and Jump checks.
A special forces penguin has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It can always can choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.
Special Forces Penguin Characters
Special forces penguin characters possess the following racial traits.
- –6 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence.
- Tiny size: +2 bonus to Armor Class, +2 bonus on attack rolls, +8 bonus on Hide checks, –8 penalty on grapple checks, lifting and carrying limits 1/2 those of Medium characters.
- A special forces penguin's base land speed is 10 feet, and it has a Swim speed of 40 ft.
- Darkvision out to 60 feet and low-light vision.
- Racial Hit Dice: A special forces penguin begins with one level of magical beast, which provides 1d10 Hit Dice, a base attack bonus of +1 and base saving throw bonuses of Fort +2, Ref +2, and Will +0.
- Racial Skills: A special forces penguin's magical beast levels give it skill points equal to 4 × (2 + Int modifier). Its class skills are Balance, Bluff, Climb, Disable Device, Gather Information, Hide, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, Open Lock, Sense Motive, Spot, Swim, Tumble. Special forces penguins have a +4 racial bonus on Balance, Climb, Move Silently, and Tumble checks and a +8 racial bonus on Jump checks. They use their Dexterity modifier instead of their Strength modifier for Climb and Jump checks. A special forces penguin has a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard. It can always can choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.
- Racial Feats: A special forces penguin's magical beast levels give it one feat. All special forces penguins gain Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat.
- +1 natural armor bonus.
- Special Qualities (see above): Hold breath.
- Weapon Proficiency: Special forces penguins are automatically proficient with the shortsword.
- Automatic Languages: Common. Bonus Languages: Aquan, Gnome, Sylvan.
- Favored Class: Rogue.
- Level adjustment +0.
